Avatar sequel almost ready for pre-production

David Konow, 13th September 2012

James Cameron and Avatar have been in the news a lot lately, even if we're at least a good three years from the sequel hitting the theaters.

Right now, speculation is the first Avatar sequel could be ready by 2015, but again, this is only speculation.

As we've previously discussed, it looks like there may be two sequels and a prequel to Avatar, and James Cameron may also follow up with his long in-gestation big screen version of the Japanese manga Battle Angel after all this. After all this speculation hit the 'Net, Cameron himself spoke to the L.A. Times to say that pre-production on the next Avatar film will be begin in January.

Cameron told Times reporter Rebcecca Keegan, who also wrote the authorized bio for the director The Futurist, that he's right now in his "top secret writing cave," trying to get the next two sequel scripts done. As much as Cameron thrives on challenge, like many of us writers, he hates writing and actually feels it's the hardest part of making a movie.

Fans of Cameron know he's written two scripts back to back before, namely Aliens and Rambo (First Blood II), and he finished both by dividing how much time he needed to work on both every day, and by a certain calculated point they'd both be complete. As much as he may hate the writing process, and trust me, it's not easy for the best of us, Cameron's clearly too hands on not to lay the written groundwork.

Now that he's writing the two Avatar sequels back to back, "It's a little bit of a daunting writing task because it's two scripts and they've both gotta be done at the same time. I'm writing it as separate stories that have an overall arc inclusive of the first film. I don't want to suffer from the Matrix 2 problem, where it just ends, like, what the hell? It's gotta end. There's gotta be a sense of conclusion, but also a sense that the journey will continue, and that's a fine line."

As for the Avatar prequel, it's just an idea that Cameron has at the moment, no script's going to be written right now. Two scripts at the same time is more than enough to get done, although again, Cameron is a staunch workaholic who loves a challenge, maybe he can start taking notes during bathroom breaks or during the twenty minutes of sleep he probably gets a night.